Ginsburg Recalls Days When She Used to be Confused With O’Connor

The increasing proportion of women on the Supreme Court has made life easier for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

At a breakfast gathering in Virginia on Tuesday, the high court’s second female justice — after Sandra Day O’Connor — shared some good-humored reflections on the court’s changing gender balance.

The Washington Post has a report on her remarks at the event, which was hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council at the Hyatt Regency in Reston and moderated by former U.S. solicitor general Ted Olson.

“Every year Sandra and I served together, someone would call me Justice O’Connor because they heard a woman’s voice,” Justice Ginsburg said, according to the Post. “No one calls me Justice Sotomayor and no one calls Justice Kagan Justice Ginsberg. It’s an exhilarating change. It’s wonderful for schoolchildren who come though to see women are there.”

She said she realized the gains made by her and other women were permanent soon after her arrival in 1993 when the court added a women’s restroom to the justices’ robing room.

Justice Ginsburg, who turns 81 in March, was asked about the ‘R’ word, reports the Post. For now, she said, she has no plans to step down. “As long as she can do the job full steam. Can you think and write with the same fluency? At my age, you take it year by year. I’m OK this year,” she said.

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